University Diaries » Who is Killing the Great Squirrels of Missoula?

For years, [Charlie] Leitch has made it his morning duty to leave piles of unsalted Hoody’s peanuts at the bottom of the trees outside Corbin Hall [at the University of Montana] to feed the 12 to 16 squirrels that inhabit them. But starting last week, most of the peanuts have gone uneaten.

On Thursday morning, he only saw about four squirrels, but they weren’t regulars. They acted like they barely knew him.

“Normally I show up in the morning and, literally, there will be eight squirrels at my feet wanting peanuts,” Leitch said. “They started disappearing about the time school started, and … I showed up on Tuesday and I put out peanuts and they just didn’t come.”

Leitch has worked on campus for nearly 23 years and, while his job as an accountant for the Rural Institute has made him adept at keeping track of hundreds of thousands of dollars of grant money and following paper trails, he is at a loss to find the majority of his long-tailed charges.

“I don’t know [what happened to the squirrels], but it’s got me worried to see that many disappear, because normally at this time … not only would they be swarming on that side of the building, they would be swarming on this side of the building, too, and there aren’t any,” he said. …

Trackback URL for this post:
http://www.margaretsoltan.com/wp-trackback.php?p=17710

David Says:
September 22nd, 2009 at 7:39AM

He lost me here.

“I really don’t want to hear anyone give me a purist argument that they’re not native to Montana,” he said. “Well I’m sorry, they’re here and specie-ism is just as bad as racism, or ageism or sexism … someone needs to take care of them.”

I don’t like the way squirrels move. They skitter.
I think I’m a squirrelist.

theprofessor Says:
September 23rd, 2009 at 7:01AM

A slow news day in Missoula apparently.

One wonders whether Charlie has pondered how the approximately 10 jillion gazillion other squirrels survive without daily peanut deliveries.

Margaret Soltan Says:
September 23rd, 2009 at 7:48AM

Their Gross National Happiness is lower, tp.

University Diaries » Squirrels and the American University Says:
February 18th, 2010 at 10:50AM

[...] tired of squirrels chewing through their electrical systems sometimes secretly try to kill them. Or not [...]